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Post by Admin on Aug 14, 2012 13:44:51 GMT -5
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a2uton
Junior Member
Posts: 63
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Post by a2uton on Aug 23, 2012 23:55:34 GMT -5
Boy, that there is shore enough a Rough Buncha fellers you got all possed up to face down that Wise Owl hombre and this El Diablo bloke. An now them fellers worked emselves up a nice Hex to take im on. I get the feelin that Ace of Winchesters might mebbe also be useful to em. But I do kinda miss that Roving Ranger feller.
It looks like almost everything you've been working on for the last few years is all tying together. Looks like next issue is going to be an All-Star shootout and if turns out half as good as this that deserves an All-Star shout out. I just wish it wasn't so long between issues cause this ones really got me excited.
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Susan Hillwig
Staff
I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested.
Posts: 1,612
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Post by Susan Hillwig on Aug 30, 2012 15:01:49 GMT -5
I really do apologize for the long wait between issues, but things have just gotten too busy around Hillwig HQ to churn them out any faster (yep, I can't even maintain a quarterly schedule anymore). I'll do my best to have WWQ#25 out by the end of the year, and after that...well, that'll be the last one for a good long while. Yep, you heard it here first: WWQ is going on hiatus, at least where it comes to my output. I do plan on pounding out more stories at some time in the future, and I'll gladly look at submissions from other writers in order to fill the gap, but I really do need to walk away for a while. More details will follow in #25's edition of "Trail Talk".
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Post by HoM on Feb 9, 2016 4:28:23 GMT -5
A lot of the time when I'm reading, I have a doc open beside it to write down my thoughts as I progress through the piece. The same applies here, so I thought I'd give you a heads up before getting into it all.
Again, I'm coming to this issue from a distance, so a lot of the characters, such as James Thunderborne, are foreign to me. You waste no time in introducing them to us though, and I could really feel Thunderborne's struggle with his addiction, with what he wanted his life to be, as the opening scene unfolded. I was really taken aback by the six month gap between the events of the last issue and this issue, but it makes perfect sense considering the vastness of the Americas back then. Windrunner really did have one over on everybody with his ability to dart about. Six months though... and I was reading the opening thinking... what about his grandparents?
Now, I'm not as familiar with Windrunner's powers as I might otherwise be if I'd stuck with the book way back when, but I'm assuming that he accesses the Speed Force, or some offshoot of it, and it's fascinating to see the more sentient version of the concept being utilised. I wonder if this is some alterative version of it, not truly the Speed Force, but because my lack of knowledge considering the eventual Max Mercury, I'm not entirely sure. Interesting to follow though. And sad to see the man gone.
Jeff Graham sounds like the knd of protagonist I could follow through other stories. Taking out plague-spreading spirits wearing human flesh? Not beig fazed by much at all but still being an ascribable sonofabitch? Yeah. I liked him. The escape was well written and well choreographed. Conjura has a very convenient powerset, considering my earlier comment about how big America is, so she's a lucky find for our crew! Her later scene in Canada was scary, but also revealing. These people are facing the horrors of the times (and horrors beyond time!) and there's no promise they'll make it out intact. But to still go after Wise Owl, it shoes the real chutzpah they've got at the end of the day.
Bison Cult-- fore bearers of Black Bison? If so, I love the winking mentions to the wider world. I just hope I'm savvy enough to catch them all!
Oh. I spoke too soon about Graham I guess. That's... a shame. I was growing to like him, and to loose him like that... it's just a shame, isn't it??
Hawk meeting Nighthawk-- the re-incarnated Tomahawk, I assume-- the reincarnated Khufu-- was a nice moment in amongst the aftermath of the chaos left by El Diablo. Who, I'm aware, is supposed to be a good guy, so I'm going to assume that this is some kind of origin for the man, and that his mission will be one of redemption as the story concludes.
Earlier, when Graham whipped out his rifle, I assumed we were seeing the origin of the Ace of Winchesters, but I was disappointed to see it fail. Having Nighthawk rebuild it from the ground up-- and in a very familiar form!-- was brilliant. I love me some esoteric occult weaponry, gadgets and the like, and having this story be the one where we see the creation of the weapon was great. The success of their test firing was gratifying. Everyone rallying around a small victory in a larger war. Good times.
And then we get Jonah Hex on board! Sad to hear about his family, and even sadder to see him in this state, but he seemed ready and willing to yank himself out of the funk and get back on top of things. And then we get Bat Lash (yay!) swanning in, this team up is becoming something truly epic. I've never been one to really engorge myself on the western genre, but I'm really enjoying what I'm reading so far. Johnny Thunder, Madame .44, it's a veritable All-Star Squadron of riders, and I'm psyched to see where the story concludes-- and considering the final part of the story went live last week, I won't have to wait any longer!
Thanks for sharing this, Susan!
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Susan Hillwig
Staff
I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested.
Posts: 1,612
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Post by Susan Hillwig on Feb 12, 2016 14:04:11 GMT -5
A lot of the time when I'm reading, I have a doc open beside it to write down my thoughts as I progress through the piece. The same applies here, so I thought I'd give you a heads up before getting into it all. Again, I'm coming to this issue from a distance, so a lot of the characters, such as James Thunderborne, are foreign to me. You waste no time in introducing them to us though, and I could really feel Thunderborne's struggle with his addiction, with what he wanted his life to be, as the opening scene unfolded. I was really taken aback by the six month gap between the events of the last issue and this issue, but it makes perfect sense considering the vastness of the Americas back then. Windrunner really did have one over on everybody with his ability to dart about. Six months though... and I was reading the opening thinking... what about his grandparents? For more on Thunderborne, I refer you to the Johnny Thunder issues Don wrote for WWQ, as well as "The Three Thunders" in 2010's Weird Western Spectacular. Regarding the six-month gap, that was due to both Hawk's recovery time as well as the distance between Echo Valley and Mesa City. I have fudged things in the past regarding how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B: many a railroad station has been conveniently placed, and some horses and stagecoaches have perhaps moved faster than usual. As for Maxwell's grandparents, I'm glad that their brief appearance in the previous issue moved you enough to care about what may have happened to them after his disappearance. I've kept some stuff regarding Maxwell's powers vague, partially due to the fact that, in the modern DC2, the Speed Force is viewed through more scientific eyes. Not to say that scientific analysis didn't exist in the 19th Century, but there's always been something mystical about the whole thing. Speedsters talk about it calling to them, sometimes they get lost in it, you can pass it from one speedster to the next and back again...the idea that the Speed Force is sentient seems like the next logical step. And if it is sentient, who's to say that a spiritual culture encountering it might not think of it was some kind of god? An even better question: Is He-No -- the Thunderbird -- part of the Speed Force, or is the Speed Force part of He-No? Something to ponder before reading WWQ#25. Before starting this arc, I realized we needed to beef up the ranks a bit. We needed characters that could fill roles our already-established folks couldn't. Jeff Graham -- aka The Roving Ranger -- first appeared in comics in the 1950s but didn't last long, as there was nothing distinguishable about him. Knowing a little about the Ace of Winchesters, however, I decided that this unremarkable Texas Ranger was the one who built that fabled gun. I wrote him like combination of Hex and Constantine, and while he was a blast to make up dialogue for, you're right in your assertion that not everyone will make it out of this intact. However, if someone wanted to write a standalone tale about Graham set prior to these events... Conjura fulfilled another need, both as a mage and to diversify the cast. She was actually created by Joe Kubert in the 1970s for a series of educational books featuring DC characters (Kubert took some old Zatanna stories and substituted Conjura for the backwards-speaking spellcaster). Seeing as how she's semi-canonical, I decided to make a 19th Century version of her (to see more of her, go read WWQ#21). As for the Bison Cult...yes, they are connected to Black Bison. I've seen offhand references to them before, so I worked it in. Blame David for the Nighthawk/Tomahawk/Khufu connection. He tossed me that curveball in one of his stories years ago, and it took me a while think my way around it (read "The Circle Unbroken" to see how I did it). And I figured Hannibal's fix-it man background would come in handy when it came to the rifle. To figure out where exactly Bat Lash swanned in from, read WWQ#22, it'll lead you right up to that doorstep. As for Jonah's sorry state, I advise settling in for a while if you decide to read all of the "Love and War" storyarc, which runs through WWQ#13-20 (with a couple of Johnny Thunder tales sprinkled in for flavor). And thank you for reading the issue, no matter how long after the fact.  |
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